Would you like ice with that?

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The Astoria is not known for it's back stage service. For example, they usually supply 2 bottles of wine (as per the rider) but nothing to open them with or anything to poor the wine in. So, if you fancy a sip of red you have to break the neck off on the edge of a table and slug it from the broken remains (I did actually once do that with a baby bottle of champagne on a picnic after the cork gradually and irretrievably broke apart and worked its way into the bottle)

I was surprised when a member of staff came in and asked us if we wanted any ice (presumably for the red wine - can you tell I don't drink?) We responded with a hearty "yes please".

"In a bucket" he asked.
"Sure, a bucket would be great"

10 minutes later he turned up with the ice, not in aforementioned bucket but in a bin liner. It was actually half full too - he could barely lift it up the stairs. What the hell was he thinking? What did he think we wanted it for? A hit and run on Iceland?

We dragged it outside the dressing room - we didn't actually have a requirement for ice at all. After the show it took us a minute to figure out why the stairs were soaking wet.

J